VHS bites the dust

DVDs reign at local public libraries.

DVDs reign at local public libraries.

January 08, 2006|YaSHEKIA SMALLS Tribune Staff Writer

First, it was the eight-track player. Then, 16-millimeter film and LP vinyl records were rolled away. Next, music on audio cassettes bit the dust. Now, after 28 years of dominating the movie industry, video cassettes are going by the wayside. The St. Joseph County Public Library stopped purchasing VHS cassette tapes last spring to free up space for more DVDs, a move that will save the library money and better meet popular demand. And it's not alone. Circuit City stopped selling VHS cassettes in 2002, and Best Buy quit in 2003. Wal-Mart last year reported plans to stop selling VHS cassettes after next month, and some commentators predict that 2006 will be the final year of new releases on VHS. According to a 2005 media survey by the Library Journal, DVDs are quickly replacing VHS cassette tapes as the top choice, rising by 91 percent in library circulation during the past two years. VHS tapes have decreased in circulation by 13 percent. "When you have to buy in two formats, you get fewer things, and really what people wanted were DVDs," said Joseph Sipocz, manager of the St. Joseph County Public Library's Francis Branch. DVD vs. Video The St. Joseph County Library owned almost 16,000 copies of DVDs in December 2004, while offering a little more than 24,000 video cassettes. But the tables turned last December, with the library dropping down to almost 18,000 video cassettes in stock and increasing its number of DVDs by 10,000. When Sipocz, former manager of collection development at the county's main library, looked at recent statistics, he saw that video cassette circulation actually peaked in 2002. "I was worried that maybe we had stopped too soon, but we didn't stop soon enough," Sipocz said. The library's distributor, Midwest Tape, has even stopped making VHS cassettes for many movies. Now, part of the library's annual budget of $298,000 that went toward VHS cassettes is going toward DVD purchases. But that doesn't mean the library will get rid of its VHS cassette tape collection altogether. "As far as keeping them in the collection, we'll keep them as long as they are used, but if it's a choice between getting rid of DVDs and getting rid of VHS, we'll get rid of VHS," Sipocz said. "But children's will be the last to go." Following Behind Susan Mitchell, who purchases movies for the Plymouth Public Library, said she has "rarely" purchased a VHS movie in the little more than a year in which she's been in the job. "I've always been getting DVDs," she said Friday. "They're smaller, they're better, and more people are getting DVD players." Mitchell said that in addition to being less expensive to purchase, the DVDs bring the widescreen format to the viewer, along with "the way the directors want people to see the movies, from what I've been reading." The only weeding out of existing VHS copies Mitchell has done has been with some duplicates in the collection, but not even all of those because of their popularity. "I hate to get rid of anything," she admitted, but added that if she purchases a VHS today, "it has to be really special." At the Mishawaka-Penn-Harris Public Library, officials slowed down VHS cassette purchases over the past five months and finally stopped Jan. 1. DVDs are by far outstripping the circulation of VHS tapes, said Marsha Loyer, media services coordinator. "Certainly manufacturers have made it clear that they no longer are going to produce them, and so that made us precipitate the move so quickly," Loyer said. Pros and Cons South Bend resident Jan Vagg, 64, got a personal Digital Video Recorder for Christmas, but she's still a "hard-core fan" of the VHS cassette tape. Vagg, who has frequented the St. Joseph County Library for the past 10 to 15 years, noticed earlier last year when the library's collection of VHS tapes shrank. Vagg said she prefers VHS over DVD because she can stop a movie and pick up where she left off more easily using a VCR. But she and her daughter Dana Vagg, 33, are on opposite sides of the spectrum. Dana Vagg once worked at Technicolor in California, the No. 1 producer of compact discs and a big advocate of cost-effective DVDs. "I prefer DVDs because of their special features," Dana Vagg said. "That's always a bonus mostly -- and the quality. And you can fast-forward in chunks; you don't have to wait 15 minutes. And they can last a long time, and they're cleaner than VHS." Sipocz said DVDs also take up less space on the library's shelves, offer alternate endings and provide various language options. And you don't have to worry about a cockroach getting stuck in a DVD either, Loyer said with a laugh. "We've actually had a cockroach come out of one of them (VHS tapes)," Loyer said. "And believe me, we wrote down the patron's name." The biggest disadvantages of DVDs, however, are that the disks can scratch more easily and sometimes don't play. The St. Joseph County Library also faces a problem with DVD theft, hence the need for plastic security cases and security officers in the main library. TV Shows on DVD Today, television shows on DVD, such as "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" and "24" especially are growing in popularity. Many other popular shows include "Survivor," "CSI" and shows on premium channels HBO or Showtime, which viewers without cable don't have the opportunity to see. "They know what they want," Sipocz said of today's viewers. "They want it now. They want it in a format. They don't want to wait until Wednesday to watch it on a TV show." CDs, MP3s and iPods While audio cassettes fade from existence -- most cassettes at area libraries are children's music or language teaching tapes -- compact discs reign. The St. Joseph County Library bought 15,000 new copies of music CDs last year, bumping the number it owns up to 58,000. At the Mishawaka-Penn-Harris Public Library, MP3-player owners beginning last February could even download audio books through NetLibrary. More than 1,103 books are available, with 60 new titles being added each month, but the service is not compatible with the iPod, Loyer said. The St. Joseph County Public Library decided against providing this service, as iPods are now between 60 percent to 80 percent of the market, Sipocz said. "When there is an iPod solution that is friendly for libraries, we certainly would like to get it," he said. The Future Surely a time will come when CD-ROM computer games will also become extinct with the gradual takeover of Nintendo, PlayStation and Xbox, but the St. Joseph County Library does not have plans to get rid of them anytime soon. And there's no doubt the next generation of video and music will be online. And that some new technology will replace DVDs with better image quality. But until broadband becomes less expensive for libraries, and until more American households have high-definition television, don't look for these changes too quickly, library officials said. "I don't know if it's going to actually happen or not," Sipocz said.